Like most horror/cult cinema fanatics, I don't like remakes. So when I heard there was going to be remake of one of the greatest movies of my all-time favorite director, I knew from beforehand that I would be even more skeptical than usually the case with remakes. "Cani Arrabbiati", a.k.a "Rabid Dogs" or "Kidnapped", was an ambitious Poliziotteschi/Euro-Crime project by the almighty Italian director Mario Bava (the most genius director who ever lived) and his son Lamberto in 1974, but due to legal issues and production company bankruptcies, the film sadly only got finished in 1997 long after Mario's death and the career peaks of Lamberto. Still, in spite of the juridical issues, it was one of the absolute highlights in its kind. I watched the remake (original French title: "Enragés") at the Brussels International Film Festival and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Although by no means an exceptional or astounding film, but nevertheless a solid and compelling thriller with a tense atmosphere from start to finish as well as intriguing characters, gritty action sequences and an exhilarating soundtrack. Sabri is the getaway driver of a violent bank heist, but their scheme goes awry almost straight from the beginning. Sabri, along with his three companions, must dump the conspicuous getaway car and blend into the crowds of a shopping mall. But their leader is badly hurt and the blood trail that he leaves behind puts all the city's police forces back on their tail. While the number of casualties disturbingly mounts, the gangsters take an attractive woman hostage and run back out into the streets. They stop another vehicle, an inconspicuous old grey Volvo, which also give them two more hostages; a father who was on his way to the hospital with his unconscious 4-year-old daughter for a lifesaving kidney transplant. This is still only just the beginning of a very long, intense and nightmarish journey with numerous obstacles, deadly confrontations and unforeseen surprises. Although the trio of fugitive hoodlums succeeds fairly well in coming across as cruel and menacing (particularly Vincent played by François Arnaud) they honestly aren't even half as nihilistic, loathsome and vile as the thugs in Bava's original. Compared to Blade or Thirty-Two of the 1974 film, these guys are merely rabid puppies instead of dogs and thus also the overall tone of "Enragés" is less unsettling due to this. The violence is quite explicit but not too shocking, and only a couple of scenes are truly memorable, like the stop at the gas station or the showdown during the feast of the bear town-festival. The climax, however, is very well-handled and in case you're not familiar with the story you definitely will be dumbfounded, as there's no way anyone could predict this type of plot-twist. The acting performances are more than adequate, with respectable roles for Lambert Wilson and the still extremely attractive Virginie Ledoyen as the hostages, but my personal favorite aspect of "Enragés" was undoubtedly the soundtrack. The eerie and tense tunes are often reminiscent of a Goblin or giallo soundtrack, and near the end there's also a beautiful choir version of Radiohead legendary song "Creep" (which, I think, was also used in "The Social Network")
11 Reviews
A bit bland
kosmasp11 February 2016
Now I haven't seen the "original" (1974, title can be found here on IMDb), but I did quite like the movie they made here. It kind of works , even if of course some characters could've "acted" differently for a different outcome .. but what fun would that have been? Also it does all make sense in a weird ... sense.
The acting is more than decent and the suspense is pretty good, and might be able to keep you on the edge of your seat. You do want to know where this is going. The end might be a deal breaker for some (or rather the resolution in general), but it was fitting to the movie and how it developed ... Since I haven't seen the original, which people seem to really like (and where the characters worked better, especially one that is really crucial), I can't comment on that other than to say that it does feel a bit cheap and bland. You can still have fun with it, especially if you're unaware of the other movie I reckon
The acting is more than decent and the suspense is pretty good, and might be able to keep you on the edge of your seat. You do want to know where this is going. The end might be a deal breaker for some (or rather the resolution in general), but it was fitting to the movie and how it developed ... Since I haven't seen the original, which people seem to really like (and where the characters worked better, especially one that is really crucial), I can't comment on that other than to say that it does feel a bit cheap and bland. You can still have fun with it, especially if you're unaware of the other movie I reckon
Well produced and reasonably entertaining, but doesn't do anything that the original film didn't do better
lonchaney2025 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I was pretty surprised to learn that a remake of Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs (1974) had been filmed under everyone's noses, and once it popped up on Netflix streaming I had to check it out. The original Rabid Dogs is one of Bava's most atypical and yet most effective thrillers, in which the director very consciously sought to reinvent himself. Bava was (and still is) most renowned for his Gothic horror films, but his Romantic and stylized approach to the genre seemed hopelessly dated to seventies film-goers, and so he set about producing an extremely gritty and contemporary crime thriller. Unfortunately the film wasn't released in Bava's lifetime due to an untimely bankruptcy on the producer's part, and post-production wasn't completed until the mid-nineties. With all of this in mind, it strikes me as particularly interesting that this is the first Bava film to receive an official remake, and even more so to see how radically different Hannezo's approach is from Bava's.
The story concerns three criminals on the run after a violent robbery, and the game of cat and mouse that plays out between them and their three hostages: a woman, a man, and the man's young daughter. As the film begins, a character who we will soon identify as the male hostage tells himself in voice-over, "Ignore the assholes who preach. This is your story. Only your version matters. No other." Here Hannezo seems to be telling the viewer to forget Bava's version, and that this new film should be judged on its own merits, but the words strike me as insincere since the film itself is credited as an adaptation of Bava's film rather than the short story, "Man and Boy," and even uses a techno cover of Stelvio Cipriani's original theme music. Nonetheless, Hannezo does distinguish himself from Bava in a number of ways.
Whereas Bava tells his frantic story in a linear fashion, and essentially in real time, Hannezo attempts to flesh out the film and its characters with several stylized flashbacks. Thus we see how such-and-such criminal began their life of crime, what our hostages were up to before their capture, etc. While the scenes are beautifully lensed in vivid Refn-esque primary colors by D.P. Kamal Derkaoui, they don't contribute anything of importance to the narrative. The insights they provide into the characters are superficial at best, and don't significantly inform their decisions throughout the story. More surprising, though, is how much tamer Hannezo's version is in terms of its on screen violence. Though the gunshots are more graphic here than in the original, most likely due to Bava's meager budget ruling out elaborate make-up effects, it significantly dials down the torture and sexual violence that its heroine undergoes. This isn't necessarily a criticism (who leaves a movie complaining there wasn't enough rape, other than sadists and serial killers?), but it does mean that Bava's film is easily the more shocking and transgressive of the two. And since Hannezo films his story in a far more glossy, stylized way than Bava, the violence isn't nearly as hard-hitting when it does occur, though he certainly knows how to craft an exciting chase scene.
The biggest issue with the remake, I think, is in the casting, since the players here are largely interchangeable, with the only standouts being Lambert Wilson as the man, and François Arnaud as the most sadistic of the three criminals. Arnaud isn't given as much to do as his counterpart in the original, but he has a young Oliver Reed vibe to him, which made him stand out in a big way. Unfortunately the largely generic actors here make it far more difficult to care about the characters' fates.
After the last scene played out in almost exactly the same fashion as in the original film, I found myself questioning why this one even needs to exist. Though it's very well produced and reasonably entertaining, it doesn't really accomplish anything of note that the original film didn't do better. By providing a new point of comparison with Bava's original film (another point being the misguided Kidnapped cut assembled by Alfredo Leone and Lamberto Bava), though, this remake sheds greater light on why Bava's interpretation of the story remains so effective, so for that I appreciate the experience. If you haven't seen either version, though, I'd definitely stick with Bava's, which remains a classic of its genre.
The story concerns three criminals on the run after a violent robbery, and the game of cat and mouse that plays out between them and their three hostages: a woman, a man, and the man's young daughter. As the film begins, a character who we will soon identify as the male hostage tells himself in voice-over, "Ignore the assholes who preach. This is your story. Only your version matters. No other." Here Hannezo seems to be telling the viewer to forget Bava's version, and that this new film should be judged on its own merits, but the words strike me as insincere since the film itself is credited as an adaptation of Bava's film rather than the short story, "Man and Boy," and even uses a techno cover of Stelvio Cipriani's original theme music. Nonetheless, Hannezo does distinguish himself from Bava in a number of ways.
Whereas Bava tells his frantic story in a linear fashion, and essentially in real time, Hannezo attempts to flesh out the film and its characters with several stylized flashbacks. Thus we see how such-and-such criminal began their life of crime, what our hostages were up to before their capture, etc. While the scenes are beautifully lensed in vivid Refn-esque primary colors by D.P. Kamal Derkaoui, they don't contribute anything of importance to the narrative. The insights they provide into the characters are superficial at best, and don't significantly inform their decisions throughout the story. More surprising, though, is how much tamer Hannezo's version is in terms of its on screen violence. Though the gunshots are more graphic here than in the original, most likely due to Bava's meager budget ruling out elaborate make-up effects, it significantly dials down the torture and sexual violence that its heroine undergoes. This isn't necessarily a criticism (who leaves a movie complaining there wasn't enough rape, other than sadists and serial killers?), but it does mean that Bava's film is easily the more shocking and transgressive of the two. And since Hannezo films his story in a far more glossy, stylized way than Bava, the violence isn't nearly as hard-hitting when it does occur, though he certainly knows how to craft an exciting chase scene.
The biggest issue with the remake, I think, is in the casting, since the players here are largely interchangeable, with the only standouts being Lambert Wilson as the man, and François Arnaud as the most sadistic of the three criminals. Arnaud isn't given as much to do as his counterpart in the original, but he has a young Oliver Reed vibe to him, which made him stand out in a big way. Unfortunately the largely generic actors here make it far more difficult to care about the characters' fates.
After the last scene played out in almost exactly the same fashion as in the original film, I found myself questioning why this one even needs to exist. Though it's very well produced and reasonably entertaining, it doesn't really accomplish anything of note that the original film didn't do better. By providing a new point of comparison with Bava's original film (another point being the misguided Kidnapped cut assembled by Alfredo Leone and Lamberto Bava), though, this remake sheds greater light on why Bava's interpretation of the story remains so effective, so for that I appreciate the experience. If you haven't seen either version, though, I'd definitely stick with Bava's, which remains a classic of its genre.
Father knows best....
FlashCallahan12 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Three bank robbers and their two hostages, a comely lingerie saleswoman. whom apparently is on her honeymoon, and an anxious father, desperate to get his daughter to the hospital, careen through a surreal car ride that is leading to nowhere.
Having not seen the original by Mario Bava, rabid dogs appears just to be another kidnap that will end with protagonists and antagonists going through Helsinki syndrome, and then the crooks turning on each other.....usually in the name of love.
But the maguffin here is that the father, played wonderfully by Lambert Wilson, is on a race against time to get his daughter to the hospital because a chance for a kidney transplant has become available and he only has a matter of hours before it will be rejected.
And this is what makes the film so fascinating, Not only does the father have to contest with the fact that his daughter may not make it, but also he has to contend with the three crooks, who couldn't give a hoot about him or his goals....not to begin with anyway.
Unfortunately though, the rest of the characters are not very well fleshed out. The criminals, who first appear to be as scared as their captives once their 'boss' is killed, end up nothing more than your archetypal criminals who have the same traits as many a criminal depicted in crime movies.
You have the quiet one, the wild one who has an eye for the ladies, and then the ultimate in stereotypes, the criminal who appears to be reasoning with the captives, but ends up being just as bad as all the others.
Ledoyen also, adds nothing to the film, other than to hold the child in the back of the car. There is a little of her backstory, but she literally gets left in the back seat for the majority of the film. The film wouldn't have changed at all if her character wasn't part of the narrative, but then the wild criminal wouldn't be wild if she wasn't part of the film.
It's visually stunning, especially the final third, when it appears that the group have wandered on to the set of a John Carpenter film, it's full of weird and wonderful characters, celebrating some sort of religious myth.
But what makes the film stand out from other crime films, other than its psychedelic visuals, is the final three minutes of the film. Just when you think it's ended with a predictable whimper, it gives you a huge slap in the face, and its amazing.
Imagine from Dusk til Dawn doing it's genre change with three minutes to go.....it's as surprising as that.
It has it's flaws, the second act is a little saggy, and the criminal element of the film is stereotypical on the verge of bland, but for the final three minutes, it's really worth seeing.
Having not seen the original by Mario Bava, rabid dogs appears just to be another kidnap that will end with protagonists and antagonists going through Helsinki syndrome, and then the crooks turning on each other.....usually in the name of love.
But the maguffin here is that the father, played wonderfully by Lambert Wilson, is on a race against time to get his daughter to the hospital because a chance for a kidney transplant has become available and he only has a matter of hours before it will be rejected.
And this is what makes the film so fascinating, Not only does the father have to contest with the fact that his daughter may not make it, but also he has to contend with the three crooks, who couldn't give a hoot about him or his goals....not to begin with anyway.
Unfortunately though, the rest of the characters are not very well fleshed out. The criminals, who first appear to be as scared as their captives once their 'boss' is killed, end up nothing more than your archetypal criminals who have the same traits as many a criminal depicted in crime movies.
You have the quiet one, the wild one who has an eye for the ladies, and then the ultimate in stereotypes, the criminal who appears to be reasoning with the captives, but ends up being just as bad as all the others.
Ledoyen also, adds nothing to the film, other than to hold the child in the back of the car. There is a little of her backstory, but she literally gets left in the back seat for the majority of the film. The film wouldn't have changed at all if her character wasn't part of the narrative, but then the wild criminal wouldn't be wild if she wasn't part of the film.
It's visually stunning, especially the final third, when it appears that the group have wandered on to the set of a John Carpenter film, it's full of weird and wonderful characters, celebrating some sort of religious myth.
But what makes the film stand out from other crime films, other than its psychedelic visuals, is the final three minutes of the film. Just when you think it's ended with a predictable whimper, it gives you a huge slap in the face, and its amazing.
Imagine from Dusk til Dawn doing it's genre change with three minutes to go.....it's as surprising as that.
It has it's flaws, the second act is a little saggy, and the criminal element of the film is stereotypical on the verge of bland, but for the final three minutes, it's really worth seeing.
Even On Its Own Terms It's Pretty Bland
Michael_Elliott28 January 2016
Rabid Dogs (2015)
** (out of 4)
A bank robbery goes horribly wrong so the robbers need to make an escape. They end up taking a female hostage but to gain access to a new vehicle they then jump into the car with a father who is trying to get his sick daughter to the hospital for an operation.
This is a remake of Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece, which in my opinion is one of the greatest Europeon crime movies ever made. It's one of the most intense movies you're ever going to see and the director brilliantly put you inside the car with these criminals to the point where you could feel the terror created by them. It's a quite remarkable film so this remake had a lot to try and live up to.
If you're a fan of Bava's film then you really shouldn't go into this remake expecting anything similar. It's clear that the Bava film was going for tension and suspense whereas this one appears to just want to remake certain scenes from that movie and explode with a tad bit more graphic violence. I will freely say that there's nothing in this remake that compares to the original and it's actually more on par with that film's alternate version known as KIDNAPPED.
The problem with this film is that there's just really nothing too special about it and had it been an American film then it probably would have gone straight-to-video. The performances are decent for the most part and there are a couple nice action scenes at the beginning. The start of the violence is handled quite well and catches you off guard. The problem with the film is that there's really no tension from start to finish and there's not an ounce of energy or emotion to be found.
RABIG DOGS isn't a complete bomb but at the same time it doesn't seem to want to try and improve on the original. There are scenes from the original that are re-done here and there are some new twists done here but nothing is exciting or all that fresh. I'm one that fully supports remakes because it's interesting to see how someone else will do something that we're familiar with. Trying to remake such a great movie would always be a hard challenge but RABID DOGS just is so bland on so many levels that I don't see what the point was.
** (out of 4)
A bank robbery goes horribly wrong so the robbers need to make an escape. They end up taking a female hostage but to gain access to a new vehicle they then jump into the car with a father who is trying to get his sick daughter to the hospital for an operation.
This is a remake of Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece, which in my opinion is one of the greatest Europeon crime movies ever made. It's one of the most intense movies you're ever going to see and the director brilliantly put you inside the car with these criminals to the point where you could feel the terror created by them. It's a quite remarkable film so this remake had a lot to try and live up to.
If you're a fan of Bava's film then you really shouldn't go into this remake expecting anything similar. It's clear that the Bava film was going for tension and suspense whereas this one appears to just want to remake certain scenes from that movie and explode with a tad bit more graphic violence. I will freely say that there's nothing in this remake that compares to the original and it's actually more on par with that film's alternate version known as KIDNAPPED.
The problem with this film is that there's just really nothing too special about it and had it been an American film then it probably would have gone straight-to-video. The performances are decent for the most part and there are a couple nice action scenes at the beginning. The start of the violence is handled quite well and catches you off guard. The problem with the film is that there's really no tension from start to finish and there's not an ounce of energy or emotion to be found.
RABIG DOGS isn't a complete bomb but at the same time it doesn't seem to want to try and improve on the original. There are scenes from the original that are re-done here and there are some new twists done here but nothing is exciting or all that fresh. I'm one that fully supports remakes because it's interesting to see how someone else will do something that we're familiar with. Trying to remake such a great movie would always be a hard challenge but RABID DOGS just is so bland on so many levels that I don't see what the point was.
This remake of Mario Bava's 1974 thriller is a serviceable time-killer that never betters the original but is fraught with tension throughout
mwilson197627 April 2020
In this French remake of Mario Bava's near lost Euro Crime nasty Rabid Dogs, three criminals take a woman and a father and child hostage after a bank job goes wrong. There's zero reason for this movie to exist as it never betters Bava's original, but it features plenty of flashy camerawork, lots of messy slaughter with a body count in double figures and is fraught with tension without. The plot also is not without its rewards, particularly one eye opening moment where the characters make a foray into a small town that looks like they're in the midst of a May Day celebration straight out of The Wicker Man. The movie was screened as part of the Cinema de la Plage programme at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .
Eric Hannezo's adaptation of Rabid Dogs.
morrison-dylan-fan8 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A few years ago I read a short review in UK film magazine Empire about a remake of Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs,which I was curious to view,but never spotted it on disc. Digging into titles on streaming service Shudder, I was happily surprised to find the flick on the site,leading me to freeing the dogs.
View on the film:
Currently his lone co-writing (with Benjamin Rataud and Yannick Dahan)/directing credit, Eric Hannezo & cinematographer Kamal Derkaoui drive into the edges of Mario Bava's colourful Horror stylisation, most noticeable in a Festival of the Bear celebration in a small town, covering the screen in flickering flames and Folk chants, whilst the car ride is frozen in time, via a dip into Bava's surrealist side by Hannzeo,with a cover of Radiohead's Creep washing over the frozen in time passengers.
Keeping the Bava- inspired styling to the edges, Hannezo drains the real-time format of tension, by shooting the rest of the flick in a flat glossy appearance, which rids the car ride and violent outbursts of any tension or grit, due to them being presenting in dry mid-shots.
Stuck in a car with four actors whose performances as four bank robbers is stuck in the interchangeable mumbling gear,Lambert Wilson (aka:The French guy from Matrix 2 and 3!) gives the stand out turn as the dad, thanks to Wilson taken the clean-cut dad,and chipping away to his way,as he finds himself trapped with rabid dogs.
View on the film:
Currently his lone co-writing (with Benjamin Rataud and Yannick Dahan)/directing credit, Eric Hannezo & cinematographer Kamal Derkaoui drive into the edges of Mario Bava's colourful Horror stylisation, most noticeable in a Festival of the Bear celebration in a small town, covering the screen in flickering flames and Folk chants, whilst the car ride is frozen in time, via a dip into Bava's surrealist side by Hannzeo,with a cover of Radiohead's Creep washing over the frozen in time passengers.
Keeping the Bava- inspired styling to the edges, Hannezo drains the real-time format of tension, by shooting the rest of the flick in a flat glossy appearance, which rids the car ride and violent outbursts of any tension or grit, due to them being presenting in dry mid-shots.
Stuck in a car with four actors whose performances as four bank robbers is stuck in the interchangeable mumbling gear,Lambert Wilson (aka:The French guy from Matrix 2 and 3!) gives the stand out turn as the dad, thanks to Wilson taken the clean-cut dad,and chipping away to his way,as he finds himself trapped with rabid dogs.
A watch once kind of film
Leofwine_draca24 August 2016
RABID DOGS is the French remake of an old Mario Bava thriller from the 1970s. The two films have the same set-up although the execution is very different. This new version is a dark and low budget thriller that focuses on half a dozen characters and puts them through the emotional ringer as the narrative progresses. I have to say that I was a bit let down by this movie. Not that it's intrinsically bad, because it isn't; it's a perfectly serviceable film and one that passes the time quite well. No, the problem is that I've been spoilt by other French thrillers in recent years: the likes of SLEEPLESS NIGHT, MEA CULPA, and THE PREY have all been exemplary, fast-paced thrillers that burned brightly with intensity. RABID DOGS feels weak by comparison.
There are some lively action scenes here for sure, and quite a few good twists. However, in between the strong stuff are some other scenes that feel dragged out and more than a little repetitive. It doesn't help that the characters are rather clichéd despite the efforts of a strong cast looking to bring them to life. The whole film needed to kick up a gear, to be more intense, more dramatic, more edge-of-the-seat, and then it could have been something really special. Instead the viewer is treated to Lambert Wilson (THE MATRIX RELOADED), Virginie Ledoyen, Francois Arnaud (THE BORGIAS) and Guillaume Gouix (THE RETURNED) trying their best but in the end making something rather ordinary.
There are some lively action scenes here for sure, and quite a few good twists. However, in between the strong stuff are some other scenes that feel dragged out and more than a little repetitive. It doesn't help that the characters are rather clichéd despite the efforts of a strong cast looking to bring them to life. The whole film needed to kick up a gear, to be more intense, more dramatic, more edge-of-the-seat, and then it could have been something really special. Instead the viewer is treated to Lambert Wilson (THE MATRIX RELOADED), Virginie Ledoyen, Francois Arnaud (THE BORGIAS) and Guillaume Gouix (THE RETURNED) trying their best but in the end making something rather ordinary.
A presentable but utterly inferior remake
PeterLormeReviews28 December 2016
Rabid Dogs, or Enragés, (2016) is a presentable but utterly inferior remake. While this remake, like most, turned out to be pretty pointless- there were still new elements brought to the table. The basic story, when stripped down to its very core, is the same as the original. They add a few different twists and turns throughout the ride. Still, the original remains superior: so simpler yet so much better. All of the newly added plot points really do nothing that would raise this film to be anything other than mediocre. At least the action is better in this one, but that doesn't effect the overall impact of the story. I'll give credit where credit is due: this film is not nearly as cheesy as the original. Nothing was laughably over-the-top. If I were to forget the original and call this an "original film", I would say that it's just another mediocre kidnap-based movie. It may not be as useless as other remakes, but it definitely does not elevate the source material.
A rather fair remake of Mario Bava's film.
searchanddestroy-13 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
You have to know that this movie is a sort of remake of Mario Bava's Carri Arrabiatti, shot in 1974, where Ricardo Cucciola had the same character played here by Lambert Wilson. He is a common driver and father of a little girl who is held as hostage by a group of brutal hoodlums. And a female innocent bystander is also involved in the scheme. Well, it is a B movie, a noir, brutal and typical of what the french movie industry may try from time to time since several years now. The peak of this film is the end, which is Alfred Hitchcock Presents's ending like. A really pure twist ending. It jumps in your face. Literally. Only the end is really worth. But maybe I am a little too hard with this film. For a first feature - I presume - it's a good try. And I was also glad to see Virginie Ledoyen, after such a long time.
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